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Bernard Herrmann's pioneering recording of a work that was once a standard in the concert hall.
Despite his success as a composer during his own lifetime, Raff's fall from grace was fairly spectacular following his death; it is true that Toscanini programmed his third symphony, 'Im Walde', a couple of times in the 1930s - and I should mention (it having become a cliché now to do so when discussing this composer) that his 'Cavatina' kept his name alive to music lovers throughout the twentieth century, though I have to confess I have never heard this supposedly ubiquitous salon piece. Bernard Herrmann had also conducted the third symphony early in his career and it is largely due to him that the composer's name became known to the record buying public at large, with this ground breaking recording from 1970.
That `Lenore' reached the studios at all was really a labour of love on Herrmann's part: he was obliged to underwrite the cost of the recording in order to get it produced and he stated that Raff's 'Lenore' stood alongside not just the 'Symphonie Fantastique' of Berlioz, but also Liszt's 'Faust' and Tchaikovsky's 'Manfred' symphonies as "one of the finest examples of the Romantic Programme school".
Een post van Buck Turgidson nu 3 dagen oud.